Tuchel talks about Chelsea sacking “motivation”
Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel does not see what happened to him at Chelsea as motivator to beat Manchester City.
Bayern Munich boss Thomas Tuchel does not need extra motivation to want to beat Manchester City. As his side heads to Etihad Stadium tonight for the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, Tuchel says he is plenty motivated without any outside factors.
Tuchel’s time in the Premier League
Tuchel coached Chelsea for nearly two years, replacing Frank Lampard in 2021. He took them to Champions League victory that year with a 1-0 win over Manchester City. The next season, though, he had a rough start and was fired by new owner Todd Boehly. Chelsea then hired Graham Potter, who lasted all of six-ish months before being fired as well. Now, it’s Lampard who’s back at the helm. Tuchel, of course, moved on to Bayern.
When asked if what happened to him at Chelsea, and being back in England, was a motivating factor to beat Manchester City, Tuchel said, “no, it’s impossible.”
“I can just give my contract back if I’m not highly motivated,” said Tuchel. “It’s a pure joy and a great gift to be part of a match like this, a quarterfinal in the Champions League.”
“Tuesday and Wednesday football is the competition where you want to be,” he continued. “If you are there as a player or you have the possibility to be there as a coach, it’s a gift from life, and I appreciate it a lot. It’s an obligation to give my very, very best from motivation and from input and from help and devotion to my players. This is it, there is no more motivation needed.”
Tuchel did express excitement to be back in England and said he “enjoyed every single day coaching in England and in the Premier League”, but that when the game starts, he will be all business.
Heading into the game tonight, Bayern sit at second in the Opta Rankings while Manchester City sit one place ahead, in first. Tuchel got the best of City in the 2021 UCL final, but has only won three of ten games against Pep Guardiola’s side. However, two of those wins came in their three cup competitions, of which City failed to score in any.
“It’s unique what Pep does. We’ll try to find solutions but we’ll need a complete performance to create problems for City,” said Tuchel. “The team is entitled to be confident after our results and performances in the Champions League so far and we have to try to continue like that. Maybe we play in a role of slight underdog, which is not a problem.”